Beginning on March 16, The Loft Cinema will be showing Mary and The Witch’s Flower, a dazzling new adventure about a young girl named Mary, who discovers a flower that grants magical powers, but only for one night. The film comes from Oscar-nominated Hiromasa Yonebayashi—animator on the Studio Ghibli masterpieces Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo, and director of When Marnie Was There and The Secret World of Arrietty. 

Mary is an ordinary young girl stuck in the country with her Great-Aunt Charlotte and seemingly no adventures or friends in sight. She follows a mysterious cat into the nearby forest, where she discovers an old broomstick and the strange Fly-by-Night flower, a rare plant that blossoms only once every seven years and only in that forest. Together, the flower and the broomstick whisk Mary above the clouds, and far away to Endor College—a school of magic run by headmistress Madam Mumblechook and the brilliant Doctor Dee. But there are terrible things happening at the school, and when Mary tells a lie, she must risk her life to try to set things right.

Based on Mary Stewart’s 1971 classic children’s book The Little Broomstick, Mary and The Witch’s Flower is an action-packed film full of jaw-dropping imaginative worlds, ingenious characters and the simple, heartfelt story of a young girl trying to find a place in the world. Featuring the voices of Ruby Barnhill and Oscar winners Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent.

Location: 3233 E. Speedway Blvd., Tucson. For more information, call 520-795-0844, email [email protected] or visit LoftCinema.org. See ad, page 12.